| After Miura and Countach rewrote the supercar rules through the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, the Diablo has upheld the tradition through the 1990s, as one of the longest lived supercars of all, and still one of the fastest. It is son-of-Countach, with many lessons learned. It was styled again by Gandini, and retains the scissor doors and wide, wedge stance, with the long tail accommmodating the V12 engine behind the gearbox in familiar style. It has grown more powerfull, more technically sophisticated and, of course faster. Diablos come in several forms, including the Roadster with lift out roof panels, and four wheel drive in the Diablo VT, which is reasurring when the going gets slippery. The purest Diablo of all is the simplest: the lightweight two wheel drive Diablo SV, which was based on the SV-R race car. Like the rest of the series, it uses the all alloy 5.7 litre, four cam, 48 valve V12 engine, uprated in 1999 to give 530bhp and more flexibility than ever before. Being 95kg lighter than its siblings, it is geared for maximum acceleration, including 0-60 in 3.8 seconds, and a top speed of exactly 200mph, which is 9mph short of the others but comes up even more quickly. |
